Online scams, finfluencers and fake experts: Consob analysis on the risks of social trading and Antitrust sanctions for incorrect practices.
It works like this: enticed by some videos on Instagramthe user decides to invest 20,000 euros of their savings in bitcoin and online trading. On the screen they soon become 100,000, but every withdrawal attempt is blocked by alleged technical problems or so-called security checks European Central Bank. To unfreeze his money, he is asked for further payments, without ever managing to recover it. Then a fake lawyer appears, promising help in exchange for an advance. «The first scam consists in making you believe you have cryptocurrencies. Then comes the second: when you discover that you have lost the money, a fake lawyer or a self-styled expert appears who promises to recover it. The victim, obviously, still pays”, he tells Panorama Paolo Colettiprofessor of computational finance at the University of Bolzano.
It is the criminal segment of a broader phenomenon, in which information, advertising and investment advice are confused. Alongside serious disseminators, there are platoons of creators who promise easy earnings and direct followers to platforms from which they then receive commissions. There Consob analyzed this ecosystem in the FinTech Notebook Financial communication via the digital channel. Risk profiles for the retail investor, written by Allegra Canepa, Massimo Caratelli, Dario Colonnello, Alessia Ottavianelli and Paola Soccorso. The central point is that digital communication is no longer limited to proposing an investment: it helps to create the environment in which the decision is made.
Algorithms, gamification and the illusion of risk-free markets
A new one is added to the traditional asymmetry between seller and customer: creators, platforms and intermediaries know algorithms and commercial incentives, while the saver sees simple and apparently spontaneous content. The main risks are conflicts of interest and lack of competence: hidden sponsorships and compensation linked to new clients can transform disclosure into sales, while social popularity and empathy end up replacing professional qualifications.
In an experiment on 1,003 university students, the authority that supervises the markets found widespread difficulty in distinguishing informational content from promotional content. Messages built on urgency, excitement or fear of missing out can reduce the attention paid to risks and disclaimers. The financial communities on Telegram, WhatsApp or Discord they can spread knowledge, but also produce an artificial consensus. Information is considered credible because it is repeated by the group, while the algorithms show users contents that are increasingly similar to those already appreciated. The so-called “neobrokers” reduce costs and times of access to the markets, but the risk arises when notifications, rewards, rankings and animations transform investing into a game. The frequency of trades becomes more important than their quality and the loss becomes an invitation to try again.
Legal borders and the shadow of artificial intelligence
On a legal level, the limit is exceeded when the “finfluencer” offers personalized advice without authorization, disseminates recommendations subject to market abuse rules or promotes products without declaring the commercial nature of the content. THE’Artificial intelligence adds a further pitfall. The face and voice of a known person can be copied to promote investments that were never authorized. Reputation thus becomes a reproducible asset.
Anna Vizzari, coordinator of the Public Affairs team and financial education expert of Altroconsumoobserves: «Consob has intervened several times on the topic of influencers who convey investment advice on social media. It is a delicate issue on which the European Authority has also intervened Esma and Antitrust Italian company which last year investigated six influencers for unfair practices. It is good to remember that financial consultancy can only be carried out by operators authorized to do so and, in the vast majority of cases, influencers are not. If you advertise an operator or product while receiving compensation, the advertising message must also be highlighted on social media with the hashtag #adv #advertising”.
The main risk? «Savers could take general advice as good that is often not suited to their characteristics as investors and their propensity for risk. In this way they would trust the idea of making safe profits without taking into adequate consideration the real possibility that the invested capital could be lost in whole or in part.”
Massimo Di Terlizzi, chairman of the Milanese studio Pirola Pennuto Zei & Associatesinstead believes a more specific regulatory intervention is possible: «Considering that in Italy the promotion of financial and investment services is reserved for authorized and supervised entities, it is clear that, given the absence of specific legislative or regulatory provisions, at the moment, the so-called “finfluencers” can influence the investment choices of an increasingly wider public, generally operating in the absence of the prescribed authorization requirements. Consequently, should this phenomenon prove to be more far-reaching, the intervention of the relevant authorities, Consob and Esma, would be necessary through the issuing of specific provisions in this regard”.
From Antitrust sanctions to international cases
Too often disclosure is confused with financial promotion. Coletti underlines, in this regard, that format, duration and context matter: «My videos often last an hour and are aimed at an audience looking for in-depth information. It’s something different from a few seconds of content built to push someone to buy a product.” The rules, however, are effective on structured operators, much less on profiles that continually change identity and platform. «Visible operators can be registered and controlled. But small scammers change their profile, name and platform. Stopping them all is almost impossible”, continues Coletti. Hence the need to combine controls with greater literacy: «We need greater financial education. We need to teach people to recognize unrealistic promises, to verify who is talking and to understand that return and risk cannot be separated”, he concludes.
In Italy, as mentioned, the Antitrust opened proceedings in 2024 against six influencers accused of publishing content relating to easy earnings without clarifying its commercial nature. In June 2025 Luca De Stefani, known as “Big Luca“, was fined 60,000 euros. One of his videos was titled “How Big Luca earns 158,000 euros a day”. The Antitrust also contested non-authentic followers and exclusively positive and not immediately verifiable reviews. Michele Leka was fined 5,000 euros for content published mainly on TikTokwhere indications and advice were described as easily applicable to obtain important economic results. The proceedings against Luca Marani, Alessandro Berton, Hamza Mourai and Davide Caiazzo were closed without any infringements being ascertained. Finfluencers have committed to removing calls for immediate earnings, inserting disclaimers and controlling their followers.
Similar examples abound abroad. Tyson Scholz, known as “ASX Wolf”, showed off Lamborghinis, yachts and villas and sold prices for up to 1,500 Australian dollars. Without a license, it had to close paid groups in 2023 and then went bankrupt. The French influencer Nabilla Benattia-Vergara, the US star Kim Kardashianformer Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce are just some of the VIPs sanctioned for irregular or undeclared financial promotions. The mechanism is always the same: notoriety replaces competence and luxury makes the promise of easy money credible. European rules are strengthening transparency and controls on finfluencers, but gamification, emotional content and deepfakes continue to favor impulsive decisions.
